yjblog

USA: Vote or die, by p.diddy, 50 cent, Mya, et al.

Iraq: Vote and die, by Iraqi terrorists.

In America, the greatest threat to voting is standing in line for an hour,“ he said. ”In Iraq, these people risked their lives and more than half were willing to do so.“

Despite threats of death, injury and large rocket launchers, Iraqi voter turnout supposedly rivalled Americans’ during their own election: 60% of registered voters in Iraq turned up, as opposed to 60% of eligible voters in the US. Impressive.

You begin to question what you’ve managed to accomplish with your life when you realise (from Wired) that one of the two creators of the excellent Firefox browser, Blake Ross [wikipedia entry], not only goes to the same university you graduated from two years ago — he’s just a sophomore, and started working on Firefox (then Phoenix) at age 15.

Great Balls of Fire(fox)

Also noticed that the co-creator of the RSS 1.0 specification, Aaron Swartz, is a freshman at this same place.

I’m glad I never had to take Computer Science classes with these guys. Or worse, teach them (though imaginably they’d be placed out of the intro class I used to CA for).

Oops.

“Hulk Visionaries: Peter David Volume 1 TPB (Hulk)” (Peter David, Todd McFarlane)

Oh man, all those memories. Even though I have to put up with the rubbish Todd McFarlane art (early McFarlane art, mind you), it’s worth it for Peter David’s [blog] excellent run.

“Ex Machina Vol. 1: The First Hundred Days” (Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris)

Brian K. Vaughan [website/blog] delivers his usual quality writing and Tony Harris his usual quality art. Very nice, I can see why the critics have been raving about this for months.

From somewhere in Europe. Winter break 2002.

Playing with flickr — late on the bandwagon (boat, other travelling vessel, etc.), yes, I know. Great when combined with the flickr export for iPhoto plugin.

My first piece of Photoshop nonsense in very, very long. Inspired by Maureen Dowd’s New York Times opinion piece, A Bunch of Krabby Patties [free registration required].

Context:

Some of the same advisers who filled Mr. Bush’s brain with sugary visions of a quick and painless Iraq makeover did mean the speech to be literal; they are drawing up military options for the rest of the Middle East. Once again, the lovable and malleable president seems to be soaking up the martial mind-set of those around him, almost like … a sponge.

SpongeBush SquarePants!

We can only hope that Dr. Dobson doesn’t pick up on the resemblance. SpongeBob, as his song goes, “lives in a pineapple under the sea/absorbent and yellow and porous is he!” SpongeBush lives in a bubble in D.C./absorbent and shallow and porous is he!

Half an hour of Google Images and Photoshop later:

I only just noticed this on the front page of the Straits Times today:

Bush to push freedom abroad - Jan 21, 2005 [free but annoying registration, available for three days]

No matter how I try to interpret the phrase, “pushing freedom abroad” just sounds horribly wrong.

Great headline.

Bush Starts New Term, Seeks End to Tyranny [Yahoo! News]

And with apologies to Suzie:

s: Things have improved: work is better, life in DC is better (it helps to know people).
s: I actually like the city, most of the time.
s: Today, which was Bush’s inauguration, was less endearing.
s: Think guys in tuxes and cowboy hats.
s: Texan accents everywhere.
s: I can’t wait until they go home.

After nearly five years, Scrubs Season One will be released May 17 on DVD. Finally!